POST NEWS UPDATE: CM Punk confirms “WWE Backstage” audition

CM Punk discusses his audition for "WWE Backstage", Paul Levesque comments on Punk, a huge interview with Tony Khan, AEW countdown audience & lots more.

POST Wrestling News Update
By: Andrew Thompson

**CM Punk appeared on Collider Live to promote the ‘Girl on The Third Floor’ film and during the conversation, Punk confirmed that he was present at FOX Studios to audition for WWE Backstage on FS1. Punk added that if he is asked to wrestle, he would turn the offer down:

“Yeah I did it. This goes back to me being in a position in my life where I’m like, ‘What do you got?’ I’m very much in a position where I’m like, ‘Well talk to me.’ I’m open to anything and if they come at me and they’re like, ‘Hey, we want you to wrestle’. I’m gonna be like, ‘Nah, I’m not interested’. I’ve grown so much as a person, and I look back at all the stuff and I don’t need it. I don’t need the confrontation; I don’t need the drama. But if… I’m a businessman, but I also put my morals and my integrity above business deals. If you want me to do anything, okay, then talk to me but don’t waste my time.” Punk said.

**Punk further dove into the topic and said he loves Renee Young who will be hosting WWE Backstage. Punk talked about the conversation[s] between himself and his agents about the position and how big of a deal FOX’s deal with WWE is when it comes to money:

“It would be all of it [in regards to everything that has to do with the ‘right type’ of deal]. I’m realizing that this is live [Collider Live] and I’m probably dooming myself but we’re just having a conversation, right? And it’s… I don’t know because it’s nothing I’m actively chasing. I don’t have numbers or specifics or details or anything like that. It’s just, my agents got me on the phone, and they were like… FOX spent a lot of money getting the rights from what I understand — just SmackDown. I thought it was the whole thing. I thought they were getting TV rights for WWE so it’s insane that… what did they spend? 4-and-a-half billion? That’s a lot of money. So, to get that, I guess they’re looking at things and ratings still are dipping and that’s been happening for 20-plus years. Trust me, I’m not saying it’s because I’m not there [or] anything like that. It’s just always been that way. When I was there and I was on top, RAW was doing 3.8’s and I’m getting blamed for it, like that’s a bad rating, and now they would f*cking kill to have a 3.8.” He said. “So, my agents just called me and they were like, ‘FOX is throwing everything at this because they spent a lot of money on this and they’re all in and they have to make it work. They reached out and want to know if you…’ — I think originally, I thought it was a WWE thing so I was just like, ‘No’,” Punk said hesitantly. “Like this is FOX.” Punk was then asked if he was dealing with FOX more than he is WWE, “I’m not dealing with anybody in WWE. It was legit like — they were just like, ‘It’s FOX’ and I was just like, ‘Okay’ and they explained to me what it was and I love Renee Young. Renee is a great person. She’s Canadian so obviously she’s super over the top nice and friendly, and it’s along the lines of what I do for CFFC. But I preferenced it with like, ‘Guys, I’m not gonna come in and dump all over stuff just to dump on it. That’s old Phil. But if it’s bad, I’m not gonna be able to pretend that it is anything but bad. So, they want to present it like it’s a real sport and just have a show that recaps stuff, just like how they do with NFL, just like how NHL Network would do with hockey games and stuff like that and that’s where we are with that.”

**Paul Levesque joined Jimmy Traina on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast and was asked about CM Punk possibly being a part of FOX’s WWE Backstage studio show. PWInsider first reported the story about CM Punk being present at FOX Studios last week for a meeting about a potential on-air role for WWE Backstage:

“Look, I’ve read about that as well and… to be clear, FOX is doing this show and it’s their show and it’s something they’re doing to talk about the WWE Universe and everything going on it. They have a long list of people that they’ve been interviewing and everything. As far as for us, one of the things I think this company has shown over and over again is, ‘Never say never’, and if the opportunity is right for everybody and it’s right for our fans, then we are willing to put the past behind us and move forward so I would say never say never but that’s also probably a long way from coming true.” Levesque said. “I don’t know. That’s a little bit outside of my purview at the moment but, like I said, never say never.”

**AEW President Tony Khan joined The Wade Keller Pro Wrestling podcast. Here are some of the highlights from the podcast:

* Tony Khan thinks Fight For The Fallen was a better show than WWE Extreme Rules: “I’ll watch it [AEW’s TNT debut] back after. I watch all of our shows back after. Usually the next day. To be honest, Fight For The Fallen — I watched Fight For The Fallen after I watched Extreme Rules and I was blown away by how much better our show was and I don’t think that was our best show.” Khan said. “In fact, out of the four shows we’ve done, it might… it’s probably three or four of the four shows we’ve done. I think Double Or Nothing and All Out were fantastic and Fyter Fest was an amazing show too and Fight For The Fallen was a great show but I guess my point is, not having our best show, I think we kicked the heck out of the WWE pay-per-view that ran that night.”

* Tony Khan comments on what he would change about the shows AEW has presented thus far: “The Double Or Nothing Battle Royale — the Casino Battle Royale at the beginning, it was almost intentional that you had Max [MJF] out there with the guys he was out there with because it was to build to a big moment with Max and Shawn Spears.” Khan revealed. “That was something we thought out for the future, and the problem was the first several minutes were… they were almost intentionally flat and it was the first several minutes of wrestling we’d ever presented out of the gate.” Khan laughed. “It was a big gamble that people were going to stick with us and thankfully they did and a lot of people were at the show but yeah, that’s a risky move out the gate when it’s your first couple of minutes of wrestling you’ve technically done. But, it did work and I don’t know if I’ve ever told this story in public but, as I was sitting there with Cody in the Gorilla — this was early enough in the show [when] he was still with me and all the guys had their matches and they’re gonna change out. One person is always gonna be there. So, it was a little hand-holding moment, because we knew Spears is about to come out and we really needed this to work so, we found ourselves literally holding hands waiting for the pop and it worked and that was a big moment and it really picked up from there and I thought from there it was great. But it was a really ballsy move out of the gate and too much so to have the first part be flat. I actually got really hands on with the women’s Casino Battle Royale in terms of laying it out because I wanted to make sure we didn’t do that again and I thought it was better. I thought the women’s Casino Battle Royale was much better and I thought we did really well with it.”

* Tony Khan thinks the Kip Sabian vs. Adam Page match at Fight For The Fallen was too long: “I don’t think the Hangman Page/Kip Sabian match should’ve gone as long as it did and it wasn’t supposed to go as long as it did and I almost cut five minutes out of it and I wish I had, and I regret not cutting the five and it went another two [minutes] than it was supposed to. So, that is one thing that I regret because Fight For The Fallen was a great show and that was probably the one thing that dragged, and then I don’t think it did anybody any favors. I don’t think it helped Kip either”. Khan continued, “Kip’s awesome. We want people to see — like look, ‘Hangman is a big star’ but we also really care about Kip and this is a guy you’re gonna pay attention to in the future but it didn’t come off the way I wanted [it] to and I certainly didn’t want it to go… I wasn’t sure I wanted it to go 17, let alone 19 and probably would’ve been the right move to cut it down to 12 or 13 like I was thinking.”

* Khan on how he produces the commentary team: “Excalibur, Marc — he had said the other day and I hadn’t really thought about much but we were in a meeting with a network and they were asking us [about] production and stuff. He was like, ‘I mean, Tony [Schiavone] in all the shows — you can count on one hand the number of times Tony has interrupted me during shows’. I would never interrupt him to begin with. If I’m gonna buzz him, it’s gonna be when J.R.’s talking or Alex or Goldenboy or whoever or Tony in the future, whoever. But, I would never interrupt somebody when they’re talking. I guess my point is, I’ve only chimed in a handful of times because we’re very well prepared ahead of time. Rarely do I have to come in and give him things to say on the fly.” Khan said. “Now, same for Jim. It’s a handful of times I’ve come in for him or Alex, Goldenboy. But, my point is, I don’t try to overproduce them. I want to listen to what they’re saying and why they’re saying it and there have been times where I’ve listened to them back afterwards and I heard them and I was like, ‘Well, I probably wouldn’t have said that’ but that’s part of the show. When I’m timing, I’m talking to Keith and Tim and people are coming through Gorilla. I’m talking to people about changes I have to make or cutting time or whatever, then… you’re not gonna catch everything the commentators say but I think it’s good. Our commentary field is pretty organic. J.R. is great, Excalibur is great and I guess my thought on it is: I just don’t want to beat in vocabulary that sounds inauthentic and makes people feel like they’re watching something that isn’t real because I think that’s the reason so many people got insulted by the product and we all kind of signed up for it to an extent because we all were accomplices as things got more ridiculous at first.”

* Tony Khan thinks the best NXT Champion in history is PAC: “You [Wade Keller] said you like NXT and I followed NXT and I have to say [that] all the years I watched it, probably the best champion they had is PAC, and he’s tremendous for us and I’m really happy he’s here in such a prominent position. I’m really excited he’s going to have that match against Hangman.”

**Matt Riddle versus Adam Cole for the NXT Championship is opening the 10/2/19 edition of NXT on the USA Network.

**Tuesday night’s Countdown to AEW on TNT: Dynamite special averaged 631,000 viewers.

**NXT’s Joaquin Wilde noted on Twitter that he underwent surgery which was a success and is now on the road to recovery. Wilde added that he now has a steel plate in his face and was told by doctors that he can get back to “doing stuff” in about four weeks. Pro Wrestling Sheet reported in September that Joaquin suffered a broken eye socket over the Summer in what was described as a “freak accident”. It is noted in the report that doctors initially held off on surgery to see if the injury would heal on its own.

**New York Post spoke with several members of the All Elite Wrestling team including Brett Weitz who the general manager of TNT, TBS and truTV. Weitz talked about the differences that viewers will see between AEW and WWE. Weitz also gave his take on how he would keep business moving forward if he was at the helm of WWE:

“I’d say the one across the street [WWE] is a very mic-heavy league and there are a lot of people grabbing mics and a lot of people talking trash in and out of the ring and there is a lot less wrestling happening,” said Brett Weitz. “[AEW] is from soup to nuts, from the moment you start to the moment the night is over, it never stops. It never ever stops. It’s really like watching an action movie.” Weitz continued, “I think ultimately if I’m Vince and I’m trying to keep my business going for the next 20 years, I’m potentially gonna stoke the ‘Monday Night Wars’ again,” Weitz said. “I’m gonna try to reinvigorate that fandom. It would be wonderful if that happened, but that’s not our main focus right now.”

**ITV announced new details regarding its free-to-air coverage of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite. The full two-hour show will be available to watch on the ITV Hub on October 3rd at 7 PM. The show will also be available to watch at 11:20 PM on ITV4 this coming Friday. AEW: Dynamite is airing again on Sunday, October 6th at 8:20 AM on ITV4. A one hour highlight special will be shown on October 7th at 11:45 PM on ITV.

**Roman Reigns participated in GQ Sports’ ‘Actually Me’ series and answered questions and responded to comments from those on various platforms including Twitter and Reddit. Roman was asked if he would like to do a program with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Reigns stated that he would like to if it’s handled correctly:

“If it’s done right. I think, obliviously, with the star that he is, where he is in his career, it would be huge. It would be great but, we’re family so it has to make sense, and free the guy up. Can we get him a break? Can he take a day off? If he can get a week off, we might be able to make it happen. So, doubtful.”

Since Reigns made his return to WWE after overcoming Leukemia, he has not been involved in the title picture. Reigns addressed that fact and said that just for now, he is just enjoying being out there in front of crowds and performing and when the time is right, he’ll be back in the title hunt: “So this is kind of something that a lot of people complain about is me being in title matches. For me, just coming back — a different perspective and for me, kind of participation is somewhat cool enough for now I guess. But I just enjoy being out there. Whether there’s a title on the line or not, I just enjoy being in that ring and being able to be healthy enough to do my thing. So when the time is right, we’ll get back into the title picture but right now, I’m just enjoying myself. Don’t rush me man.” Reigns smiled.

**All Elite Wrestling was profiled by Vulture.

**Stephanie McMahon appeared on ‘First Things First’ on FS1 to promote SmackDown’s debut on FOX. Stephanie revealed that she and Triple H’s oldest daughter has began training and if professional wrestling is what their child wants to pursue, both she and Triple H are all for the idea.

**Daniel Bryan participated in a Q&A for Nikki and Brie Bella’s podcast. The topic of retirement came up and Bryan said that his retirement from full-time in-ring competition is coming up sooner rather than later within the next few years:

“Well, and now, even still, as we look at my retirement from full-time wrestling which will be coming up sooner rather than later in the next couple of years, that probably won’t mean retirement for you [Brie Bella] for how busy you are. It will probably be me taking on more of the parental role, and so depending on jobs and that sort of thing, that’s been a nice switch in society that can happen.” Bryan said.

**Major League Wrestling announced that Zeda Zhang has signed a multi-year deal with the promotion. Zhang is the first addition to MLW’s women’s division.

**Here are the spoilers from day one and day two of the NWA Power TV tapings at GPB Studios in Atlanta, Georgia: (Spoilers by way of @BenTurpen on Twitter)

Day One (9/30/19)
* Promo from NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis.
* The Dawson Brothers (Zane & Dave Dawson) def. Sal Rinauro & Billy Buck
* Eli Drake def. Caleb Konley
* NWA World Tag Team Champions Thomas Latimer and Royce Isaacs picked up a win in a tag match. After the match, they were confronted by Eddie Kingston and Homicide.
* James Storm def. Jocephus
* NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship: Nick Aldis (c) def. Tim Storm
* Aron Stevens (Damien Sandow) appeared and cut a promo.
* Ricky Starks def. Trevor Murdoch
* Colt Cabana & Ken Anderson were victorious in a tag match.
* Allysin Kay def. Ashley Vox
* NWA World Tag Team Championships: Royce Isaacs & Thomas Latimer (c) vs. Eddie Kingston & Homicide ended in a no-contest after Zane and Dave Dawson interfered.
* Marti Belle def. Crystal Rose
* Caleb Konley won a singles match.
* The Dawson Brothers (Zane & Dave Dawson) def. Eli Drake & Tim Storm
* Trevor Murdoch was interviewed and said he wants to fight for an NWA contract
* Trevor Murdoch def. Jocephus
* Ashley Vox def. Marti Belle
* Thunder Rosa appeared after the Belle/Vox match.
* No-DQ Match: The Dawson Brothers (Zane & Dave Dawson) def. Eddie Kingston & Homicide
* Ricky Starks def. Aron Stevens
* Nick Aldis, Colt Cabana & Ken Anderson def. James Storm, Thomas Latimer & Royce Isaacs

Day Two (10/1/19)
* The Dawson Brothers (Zane & Dave Dawson) were victorious in a tag match.
* Thunder Rosa def. Ashley Vox
* 2-Out-Of-3 Falls Match: Ricky Starks def. Aron Stevens (Damien Sandow)
* NWA National Heavyweight Championship: Colt Cabana def. James Storm (c)
* Eddie Kingston & Homicide def. The Dawson Brothers (Zane & Dave Dawson)
* Trevor Murdoch def. Caleb Konley
* The Question Mark def. Dan Parker
* NWA World Tag Team Championships: Royce Isaacs & Thomas Latimer (c) def. Eddie Kingston & Homicide
* Thunder Rosa & Marti Belle def. Allysin Kay & Ashley Vox. Former WWE Women’s Champion Melina appeared during the match and distracted Allysin Kay.
* Nick Aldis def. Trevor Murdoch
* Ricky Starks vs. The Question Mark went to a no-contest.
* Ken Anderson and Eli Drake got into a confrontation which led to them brawling.
* Aron Stevens & The Question Mark def. Ricky Starks & Colt Cabana
* NWA World Tag Team Championships: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) def. Thomas Latimer & Royce Isaacs (c)
* NWA National Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender’s Match: Aron Stevens def. Ricky Starks
* NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender’s Match – Triple-Threat Match: James Storm def. Ken Anderson and Eli Drake

**NXT’s Mia Yim promoted Domestic Violence Awareness month by sharing her story.

**Beth Phoenix spoke with Jay Reddick of the Orlando Sentinel.

**‘Bleeding Cool’ posted a preview of BOOM! Studios’ SmackDown #1 comic.

**Sasha Banks appeared on ‘We Have Cool Friends’ with Cool Greg and talked about a variety of topics. During the conversation, Banks talked about her relationship with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon:

“I mean, since I came back, he gave me a really good contract. So, we have this really great relationship because we just talk money and he wants me to make him cool so I’m just helping him with his jokes, we text legit every single day. He sends me a private jet, he got me a bus. I’m just so blessed. I’m so lucky. I’m probably the first-ever woman to have her own bus. I’m making millions. Did you not know that?” Banks laughed. “I am so rich. I mean look at this [pointing to her shirt with her dog on it]. This is Gucci, with my dog on it. Vince got it for me. I’m just so blessed. So me and Vince are like best friends now,” Sasha said with a smirk. “I’m so happy that me and Vince have this relationship where we can just have fun. He slides into my DMs. I’m like, ‘Hey, why are you in my DM? Just send me a text dude. Just call me up.’”

Sasha also reflected on the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match in WWE in 2018. She expressed that it meant a lot to her that the company wanted her to be in the match for as long as she was:

“But knowing just how much faith they had in me to be in there that long for the first-ever one and just really trying to lead the girls. When I was not in the ring, I was outside on the floor making sure everyone was OK — ready for the next step and I just felt really accomplished that they really put that trust and faith with me.” Banks said. “Like, working with girls that haven’t been in the ring for 10 years and newer girls from NXT and I just felt really good that, you know, I could be a part of this place forever whether it’s a producer or a trainer, I just felt like, ‘Man, they really appreciate my work, hopefully’. So that was one of my favorite moments and I can’t believe that I got to be in the ring with Trish [Stratus] and eliminate her and we had really good chemistry.”

Banks shared that she and Charlotte Flair were not aware that they were main-eventing the 2016 Hell In A Cell pay-per-view until the night before the event. She went on to talk about taking chair shots, breaking her nose six times and waiting until she is done wrestling to get it fixed:

“I didn’t know we were main-eventing until the night before,” Sasha revealed about her 2016 Hell In A Cell match with Charlotte Flair. “I had an autograph signing in New York and me and Bayley luckily had a car service to Boston and I remember Charlotte calling me and she’s like, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but, they said we’re the main event’ and I was just like, ‘What!? Are you kidding me? In Boston? My hometown and the first-ever woman to main-event a pay-per-view. That’s crazy. Oh my gosh’. I was freaking out — just like, ‘Oh man’ and all the pressure is on. You would think they [WWE creative] would be like, ‘Hey, are you comfortable? Are you okay? Can you do a ladder match?’ No. ‘Hey, can you take a chair shot?’ Uhh, sure. I’ll do it,” Sasha laughed with uncertainty. “How much money? Just kidding. You’re welcome Vince. We don’t know a lot of stuff until we get there and a lot of times we don’t have any say but it’s just like, it’s cool. It’s what I grew up watching so… the last pay-per-view when I took a chair, it sucked ass. It hurts so bad, but at the same time, like dude, I can’t believe I just got hit with a chair. This is so cool. It’s like a dream come true,” Banks continued, “Charlotte got my nose. She loves hitting my nose. I don’t even have a bone in this nose anymore. I broke it about six times. It sucks. I’ll get it fixed when I’m done.”

**Former two-time TNA World Tag Team Champion Jessie Godderz (Mr. Pectacular) announced that he is returning to wrestling full-time.

**According to ‘Nerds and Beyond’, Braun Strowman had to pull out of his ACE Comic Con appearance next Friday due to scheduling conflicts with WWE.

**Seth Rollins joined the Jimmy Jacobs Doesn’t Know podcast.

**Revolution Pro Wrestling announced KANJI for the 2019 Queen Of The Ring tournament.

**Mance Warner provided an update on his health after announcing that his lung collapsed.

**Luchasaurus was the most recent guest on Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast and talked about how fellow AEW star Trent Beretta helped him shape the in-ring work of the Luchasaurus character. This particular conversation came about when Jericho began talking bigger wrestlers overselling for smaller wrestlers and used a conversation he had with Rusev about selling for Sin Cara as an example:

“Actually the guy who has helped with that is Trent. We’ve been friends since developmental. I met him in 2012 when I was in FCW and he was kind of about to leave WWE at that point and we were like neighbors in Tampa, and we’ve been friends ever since and really close friends.” Luchasaurus shared. “We actually tore our biceps at the same time like a year ago. We’d be in the VR helmets sitting there with our torn biceps playing chess. I had a match with him for Joey Ryan’s Bar Wrestling and he flew in to do the match with me because he wanted to help me and that was the match that really helped me turn the lights on for me with the character. I was like, ‘Now I get it’ and the way he paced it and set it up, and the way he made me keep my size, and not in an asshole way. He was able to do it to where I still took his moves, but we made it mean more and I was like, ‘Okay, I get it now’ and he would always tell me, ‘Hey, you should do this, but do it a little slower here’ and when I finally pieced together what he was saying, it kind of all started to click and now its become more signature. When I do certain things, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, that’s the Luchasaurus doing his thing’ rather than me just looking like every other guy just doing something. Which again, defeats the whole point.”

**Vickie Guerrero answered a lot of fan questions on the latest edition of her podcast and shared that she recently asked to return to WWE and the company denied her request.

**On the latest edition of WrestlingINC’s WINCLY podcast, Joey Janela joined the show and explained why he thinks Nick Gage has not been signed to a major wrestling company yet. Janela also shared his thoughts about NXT and AEW going head-to-head starting today:

“I think it’s going to be competitive. What are going to do man? What are you going to do? It’s going to be competitive. I don’t think it’s a war per se, yet. But I watched the program a couple weeks ago — was it last week? Last Wednesday? I watched the premiere… and it was OK.” Janela expressed. “I don’t watch NXT. I haven’t watched NXT in two years. The first time I watched it was last week and another reason why I wanted to watch it as well — cough, cough Lio Rush. I wanted to see if he’d f*ck up or not [but] he did great. But, besides that, I think it was kind of stale. I don’t know. Their pay-per-views are spectacular I think. I think some of their big Saturday shows are great, from what I see. I don’t watch everything but I watch a little bit. I think they are great. It’s gonna be competitive. They [NXT] know what they’re doing right now but AEW, they know what they’re doing right now as well. So, we’ll see what happens.”

**Jason C. Miller created Brandon Cutler’s AEW theme song. Cutler is slated to take on MJF during AEW’s TNT debut in Washington DC.

**Former Defiant Internet Champion Martin Kirby had the opportunity to work with some of the students of the Dragon Gate dojo.

**John Cena talked to Entertainment Tonight about what he has learned about parenting from portraying a role as a babysitter in the movie ‘Playing With Fire’.

**Former WWE writer Kristian Harloff was interviewed by Grit Daily.

**WWE Champion Kofi Kingston appeared on ESPN’s ‘SneakerCenter’ show.

**NXT U.K. star and current PROGRESS Unified World Champion Eddie Dennis spoke with Steven Wilson of the ‘Eat Sleep Suplex Retweet’ podcast and shared that it was difficult for him to sit on the sidelines at NXT U.K. TakeOver: Cardiff and watch his fellow Welshmen Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster have their moment in front of their hometown faithful:

“I’ve been to all the television tapings during my injury. I’ve enjoyed watching the brand build and watching my colleagues and friends do super well, but Cardiff was tough.” Dennis shared. “It was a tough one to sit backstage when all that was going on. Watching Mark and Flash [Morgan Webster] win the tag titles, I was elated for them and I was also the most jealous human being. I’m terribly bitter about the fact I wasn’t involved.”

**Decider interviewed AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes and Brandi said that AEW is building towards a potential female tag team division:

“So we’re building to a potential female tag team division. I think Tony [Khan] spoke about it recently that this is something that he’s wanting to do, and of course, we’re extremely all onboard. We do have a little bit more of an uphill battle as far when it comes to the women as far as, you know, there aren’t as many fixtures in the division that people don’t know well.” Brandi explained. “There aren’t many Codys or Moxleys or Chris Jerichos, so a lot of these women we are building from the ground-up here. First time on television for many of them. So I think it’s important that we establish everything that we can with these women first before throwing too many different title opportunities out there.”

**During a city council meeting in Decatur, Illinois, a man mentioned The Undertaker throwing Mankind off the top of Hell In A Cell while explaining some of the changes he wants to see in his community.

**Ahead of NXT’s two-hour premiere on the USA Network, NXT founder and senior producer Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated.

**WWE launched official playlists on Apple Music.

**Paul Bradley of FanSided interviewed independent wrestler Danhausen.

**Titus O’Neil will serve as a speaker at the University Of Florida’s Spring commencement ceremony. O’Neil received both his bachelors and masters from the University Of Florida.

**GiveMeSport spoke with NXT U.K.’s Joe Coffey. Coffey teased the idea of Gallus showing up on Monday Night RAW when RAW comes to Glasgow, Scotland on November 11th.

**‘Travel & Tourism News Middle East published an article about the economic growth in Saudi Arabia. WWE is returning to Saudi Arabia on October 31st for its 2019 Crown Jewel show.

**Peter Rosenberg wrote an article for SEScoops about NXT and AEW going head-to-head.

**At Ring Of Honor’s Glory By Honor show in New Orleans, Louisiana on October 12th, a 15-man battle royal is scheduled to take place and the winner of that battle royal will challenge RUSH for the ROH World Championship later in the night. Kenny King, Joe Hendry, Silas Young, Josh Woods, Rhett Titus, Beer City Bruiser, Brian Milonas, Cheeseburger, LSG, and Shaheem Ali are slated for the battle royal thus far. Also, after losing the Women Of Honor World Championship at Death Before Dishonor, Kelly Klein gets her rematch at Glory By Honor as she’ll run it back with Angelina Love with the WOH World Title on the line.

**The Los Angeles Times profiled All Elite Wrestling recently. AEW President Tony Khan was one of the members of AEW who was interviewed for the piece. Khan credited Jon Moxley as the reason for AEW Double Or Nothing going from an A show to an A+ show.

**IMPACT Wrestling will host television tapings at the Melrose Ballroom on November 7th and 8th.

VIDEO

**Paige sat down with IMDb for an interview.

**AEW uploaded ‘The Countdown to AEW: Dynamite’ special that aired on TNT on October 1st to their YouTube channel.

**Here’s the debut episode of WWE’s ‘The Bump’ series featuring Kayla Braxton, WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins, Evan Mack, Ryan Pappolla, Matt Camp and Dan Vollmayer.

**Muscle and Fitness interviewed WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins and RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.

**Becky Lynch defeated Seth Rollins in ‘Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite’ to become UpUpDownDown Champion.

**The WWEPC YouTube channel has a video up about RAW commentator Dio Maddin which includes highlights from Maddin calling WWE ‘Main Event’ and comments from Maddin before he called 205 Live inside Madison Square Garden.

**WWE’s YouTube page has behind-the-scenes footage up of Skillet recording the new intro for Monday Night RAW.


*****

ASK-A-WAI (Ask Us Anything!) – October 2019
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the October 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/01/ask-a-wai-ask-us-anything-october-2019/
*****
RAR 9/30/19: Machka Made in Hell, Brock Lesnar kills Dominick
On the season premiere of Raw, Brock Lesnar returned for a major angle involving Rey Mysterio and son Dominick, Hulk Hogan, and Ric Flair set up a five-on-five match for Crown Jewel. Plus, The Rock, AEW, and NWA in today’s news.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/01/rar-9-30-19-machka-made-in-hell-brock-lesnar-kills-dominick/
*****
POST Interview: Paul Lazenby remembers Rick Bognar
John Pollock speaks with Paul Lazenby on the passing of Rick Bognar a.k.a. Big Titan, who passed away earlier this month.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/29/post-interview-paul-lazenby-remembers-rick-bognar/
*****
TRMPS #9: Get Smart (2008) w/ Jennifer Smith
On this edition of The Rocky Maivia Picture Show, Nate Milton continues his aural excursion through Dwayne Johnson’s filmography by reviewing, 2008’s Get Smart with Place To Be Nation’s Jennifer Smith! POST-Marks, get ready for the most controversial episode of TRMPS to date!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/28/trmps-9-get-smart-2008-w-jennifer-smith/
*****
ROH Death Before Dishonor POST Show

John Pollock & Mike Murray are back to review Ring of Honor’s Death Before Dishonor card featuring Matt Taven defending the ROH championship against Rush.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/28/roh-death-before-dishonor-post-show/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #45: WWF The Big Event (w/ Dan Lovranski)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWF The Big Event from 1986 headlined by Hulk Hogan vs. Paul Orndorff for the WWF Heavyweight Championship in front of a record-setting crowd of 64,100 at the CNE Stadium in Toronto, Ontario. Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski joins us to discuss attending this show live.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/27/rewind-a-wai-45-wwf-the-big-event-w-dan-lovranski/
*****
Café Hangout: New WWE Broadcast Teams, AEW UK TV, NXT audience
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss WWE’s new Raw & SD broadcast teams, John Hennigan re-signing with WWE, AEW’s UK TV situation, NXT Week 2 ratings. Nate Milton joins us to discuss Impact’s transition to AXS TV.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/26/cafe-hangout-new-wwe-broadcast-teams-aew-uk-tv-nxt-rating-nate-milton/
*****
THE (FINAL) DOUBLE SHOT
On the final edition of the DOUBLE SHOT, John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss WWE Untold’s profile of Kane’s debut and the first HIAC, Road to AEW on TNT Ep. 4, Being The Elite 171, WWEPC’s Roderick Strong feature and NWA Ten Pounds of Gold.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/26/the-final-shot-wwe-untold-road-to-aew-roderick-strong-ten-pounds-of-gold/
*****

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About Andrew Thompson 7988 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.